Betsy DeVos: Understanding the Current Educational Landscape

There are many options out there when it comes to your children’s education. The problem is, that most parents are unaware that they have a say in this aspect of their children’s lives. Years ago it may have been considered radical to suggest that parents look for other options instead of automatically enrolling their children in the public school that services their district. Today, however, there are increasingly more parents looking for options that will allow them to play a bigger role in this decision. Individuals like the current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have been champions for this cause for many years. DeVos was on the front lines for parents and school choice long before it was considered a viable option. She dealt with plenty of negative feedback because her opinions challenged the status quo, but now people are starting to understand that she saw a different kind of future for America’s children.

According to an interview with Philanthropy Roundtable, DeVos believes that the situation with the American school system has come to a head. Parents have reached a point with their children’s education where they can no longer ignore the fact that it is wholly inadequate. Children are simply not receiving the standard of education present in many other developing countries. America’s youth are falling behind the rest of the world and DeVos wants to bridge the gap between the United States and the rest of the world before it gets too big. While some still consider her ideas to be radical, she is looking at the impact that ignoring this problem will have on the future. Parents, staff, and the government cannot continue to allow this to happen.

DeVos understands that many parents do not have the resources available to send their children to charter schools or private schools. From the time she raised to school age children herself, she has been supporting other parents that struggle to give their children a better educational future. While acting on the Board of Education for Michigan State, DeVos funneled more resources into multiple scholarship programs, voucher initiatives, and other financial resources that would help families of lower socioeconomic status. She has always believed that school choice should be available to all parents, it is not simply something that should be available to people that can afford a private education.

An alternative to some of these more expensive options is allowing parents to opt into homeschooling their own children or enrolling them in a virtual education system. This would still allow parents to control the educational standards that their children are taught by, but it would also help save them money overall. Their children will receive a quality education, sometimes at a lower price than it would cost to send them to a public school. DeVos knows that the holes that are present in the current education system are not going to be patched overnight. She is prepared to do a lot of hard work to bring the system up to where it needs to be. Parents can play an active role in repairing that system by understanding the role they play in their children’s education.